Google-backed Dunzo to foray into bike sharing with existing fleet

Task management app Dunzo is looking to explore bike-sharing services in the coming months. The Bengaluru-based startup plans to leverage its existing fleet of bikers for pick and drop service.

The hyperlocal app backed by tech giant Google and Blume Venture also plans to work with the government to operate at large scale. If the plan fructifies, it will compete with existing players in this space such as UberMoto, Ola, Rapido, including others.

Bike sharing model, which is currently in its peak time may add more values to the three-year-old startup, which has aggressively expanded in categories including food and groceries delivery. This space is are currently dominated by Swiggy, Zomato, BigBasket, and Grofers.

Founded in 2015 Dunzo currently operates in Bengaluru and is also set to launch in Pune in the next few months. It delivers everything from food and groceries and clothes to medicines and cigarettes and liquor from nearby stores.

Dunzo’s task volumes mainly come from pickups and drops followed by buying and selling. The addition of bike sharing with supply chain network will be a win-win situation and an additional revenue generating model for the company.

However, it will be an uphill task for Dunzo to compete against deep-pocketed players in the grocery, bike sharing and food delivery segments.

In December last year, Dunzo grabbed an investment of $12.3 million from Google. It was the first direct investment made by Google in an Indian company.

It raised $1.18 million in its Series A funding from Aspada Investment Advisors along with a $650,000 pre-Series A round from aforementioned investors including blue-chip angels Rajan Anandan and Sandipan Chattopadhyay.

Meanwhile, Dunzo reportedly is in talks with Sequoia Capital and other existing investors to raise about $30-40 million.

According to the data platform Tracxn, Dunzo valued at Rs 209.6 crore during the last funding round. Apart from Google’s 31 per cent stake, Aspada has a 22 per cent stake, Blume Ventures 12.4 per cent while Kabeer Biswas(Dunzo founder) holds a 15.1 per cent stake in the company.

Of late, it launched a subscription service dunzoX which helps prioritise users’ tasks using a mix of artificial intelligence and human operators. It comes with free delivery for the first three kilometers for 30 tasks in a month for an advance payment of Rs 299.